As we’ve settled in to summer’s steady drumbeat of 90/90 — temperature/humidity — days, I’ve been trying to sort out what I don’t like about summer hiking, as well as what keeps me on the trail. The latter first.

The case for summer

• No crowds. Summer hiking is an acquired taste, a taste even some of the most ardent hikers haven’t acquired. But here’s the thing: if you’re not into sharing the trail, it’s the best time to be on it.
• The intimacy. Come summer, every nook of the forest is adorned in green: a rich canopy, a robust understory, a thickly carpeted forest floor. All help insulate you from the world beyond, and when it comes down to it, isn’t being shielded from the outside world a big part of why you like the outdoor world?
• Hot bod, I. As you age and your body stiffens, nothing works out the kinks like the heat. On a 90-degree day those stiff joints all-but-disappear within minutes of hitting the trail. Think of it as the benefit of a steam bath while enjoying a walk in the woods.
• Hot bod, II. Hiking is a good way to firm up and lose weight. Hiking in hot weather accelerates the process.
• It makes you a kid again. For most of us as kids, summer was our favorite time of year. No school, all play, all day. Recapture that feeling with a summer hike. And maybe to capture that feeling of summer youth throw a little water into the mix. One of the best days I’ve had on the trail was nearing the end of a 14-mile loop at Doughton Park and pausing to remove my hiking shoes and dip my feet in the cold water of Basin Creek. Had there been a pool deep enough I would have been all in. 

Pretty good case for a summer hike, I believe. Now, on to the downside and how I deal with it.

The downside (and dealing with it)

• Sweaty eyes. There’s an easy solution to keeping salty sweat from dripping into your eyes, obscuring your vision, and making you crabby: a bandana, or Buff. You could use a ball cap, relying on on the headband to absorb your salty discharge, but the closed top causes heat build up. Solution? A wrap-around cloth that lets heat evaporate but catches sweat. When it reaches maximum capacity simply remove, wring, replace.
• Dehydration. You need to replace all that sweat leaving your body, lest you succumb to a summer swoon. Take a minimum of two liters of water, regardless of how long and far you plan to hike. Of course, simply having water doesn’t mean you’ll drink it. Which leads to …
• Make it a cold one. One of my favorite songs as a kid growing up out West: “Cool Water,” the Marty Robbins version. Clear, cool water to be precise. Which is why every night before a summer hike I stick a couple of three-quarter-full water bottles in the freezer. Next morning I top them off with cold water and I generally have clear, cool water for most of the hike — water I look forward to indulging. 
• Pack extra socks. Always pack an extra pair of socks and swap ‘em out before you hear the tell-tale squish-squish-squish of your feet swimming in your socks. When that happens, take the socks you’ve just removed and tie ‘em to the back of your pack. Within a half hour or so a pair of wool socks will dry just enough for you to put back on, should the need arise. (Help yourself even more by wearing lightweight summer hiking socks.)
• Vanquish the pests. I use DEET, deemed safe in concentrations of less than 30 percent, to rid myself of most summer pests. Most, but not all. …

Quick story: Years ago I was complaining to a former superintendent at Umstead State Park in Raleigh about her horse flies. “I’m on my mountain bike,” I explain, “trying to outride this especially pesky horsefly. I’m peddling like mad, but it keeps nipping at my ears. I look down at my speedometer and I’m going 35 miles per hour!” 

“The park speed limit is 20,” she replied. 

In fact, it wasn’t until recently that learned of the one thing that does seem to keep horse flies at bay.

Vinegar

Vinegar.

Like, a dab behind the ears?

Exactly. Although if the thought of smelling like a tossed salad on the trail doesn’t appeal to you, any essential oil — citronella, eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint — will do. A spritz or two about the head and summer hiking’s real nemesis will be someone else’s problem.

So, in addition to your Ten Essentials, add an 11th.

A spritz of white vinegar.

The post Embrace the Summer Hike: Here’s How (and Why) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Shortly, we set off and within a couple minutes were spared the worst of sun by the thick canopy above. That coverage, combined with our breeze-generating movement, suddenly made it feel 10 degrees cooler. 

“Whew! That’s better,” one of the hikers said. And it would continue to get better over the next two hours as the temperature dropped into the 70s.

Summer hiking. To even some avid hikers, it doesn’t exist. Starting about mid-May, fair-weather hikers hang up the boots and begin counting the days until cooler weather returns in mid September. And it leaves us perplexed, frankly. Just because it’s a little (or a lot) warmer doesn’t mean you need to take a hiatus from hiking. Instead, you need to learn to manage the heat, to work with it. One of the best ways to do that is to hike at the two times of day when heat is less of an issue, sunrise and sunset. 

Sunrise

It’s commonly assumed that as soon as the sun pierces the horizon, the temperature begins to rise. Not so. In fact, the temperature continues to drop, for a half hour to 45 minutes (or longer), depending upon the conditions. Mike Alger, Chief Meteorologist with KTVN TV in Reno, Nevada, explains.

“Because of radiational cooling, on clear nights the ground gets much colder than the air just a few feet above it. Since thermometers are placed about five feet above the ground, it will show a warmer temperature than the air touching the ground.

“Once the sun comes up, the sunlight excites the cold air in the first foot or so above the ground (which can be 10 or more degrees colder), which causes it to move around and mix into the next several feet of air. That “mixing upward” drops the temperature of the air at thermometer level.”

Alger goes on to say he sees the temperature drop as much as 5 degrees within 45 minutes of official sunrise. From there, it can take a while for heat from the rising sun to pick up steam. The forecast for this Thursday, for instance, shows a temperature in Raleigh of 67 degrees at 6 a.m. (official sunrise: 6:00:16 a.m.), with the temperature only rising to 74 by 9 a.m. Pretty decent temperatures for hiking, in most people’s books. Fall-like, even.

Sunset

The effect of a setting sun on your hiker thermostat, while real, has more of an impact psychologically.

Let’s take the Wednesday hike mentioned above and pretend it’s happening today. The forecast temperature for today at 6 p.m.: 83 degrees. Already, that’s down two degrees from the forecast high of 85. By 7 p.m., the temperature is expected to drop another 2 degrees, and 2 more by 8 p.m., putting it at 79.

Now, 79 is still warm, but it’s already 6 degrees cooler than the day’s high, and 4 degrees down from the temperature when you started hiking. The day is cooling; coupled with the setting sun you’re likely to think it’s cooling more than it is. The fact that simply getting out of your car in the exposed parking lot and walking to the shaded trailhead trimmed about 10 degrees right there. 

And, because you likely worked up a bit of a sweat at the start, that sweat is now helping to cool your skin. (One reason we apply a summer asterisk to the admonition “cotton kills” when it comes to outdoor attire; come summer, cotton cools.)

Returning to the trailhead after a two-hour evening hike can leave you feeling refreshed, rather than drained, in the heat of summer.

But the real reason to hike at dawn or dusk? The light. Be it the emerging light ushering in a new day, or the fading sunlight signaling day’s end, the light that shoulders daytime illuminates the reason we hit the trail, spotlighting the best of the outdoor world. 

Sunrise? Sunset? The beauty: You don’t even need to choose.

Resources

Sunrise, Sunset Summer Hiking Series. Not crazy about hiking by yourself in the waxing or waning light of day? Join us for a series of eight “shoulder” hikes — two at dawn, six at dusk — on trails we find are especially well-suited for enjoying the best light of the day, Learn more and sign up here.

GetHiking! Guide to Summer Hiking. Hiking at dawn and dusk are two ways to beat the summer heat — and there are more. Learn more strategies for becoming a summer hiker in our Guide to Summer Hiking. Learn more and procure a guide, here.

The post Sunrise, sunset: the best times of day to embrace summer hiking appeared first on GetGoing NC!.